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With greyhound racing in Florida now less than a year from closing the question as to be asked

Is the end of this great sport in the USA?

It seems that no one wants to take up defending it or wants to back it

The State Governments have no interest in saving it and seem hellbent on letting their citizens lose all their money at Casino's

I guess Australia, Ireland and England and other countries may be getting an influx of what's left of the great american bloodlines

No two greyhound countries are structured the same way. As is customary in the USA, individual private companies tend to be the beginning and end of the sport ie the national organisations (two) are little more than advisory or post office boxes. National management which is both dominant and wealthy in football and baseball, for example does not really exist.

In George Costanzas words, this means that greyhounds have no hand. Consequently, it suffers politically when push comes to shove, as it already has in several areas, especially Massachussets and Florida where the majority of the public, with lots of urging from Grey2K, found nothing to support and voted them out. There was no Man oWar, Seabiscuit, Kentucky blue grass or movies to drive them along.

The combo deal of racing + casinos was always a left-handed way of doing business, made all the harder because wagering takeout was always in the 20%-plus area, thereby comparing poorly with the slots. Multi million dollar hotels and casinos always knew where the next buck was coming from.

Ireland and England have their problems, too. As with the thoroughbreds, rewards to owners and trainers have always been modest so the red line was always close by, accentuated by a sometimes sleazy atmosphere and desperate attempts to overcome animal abuses (see both industry and government inquiries etc), track closures (often due to population/land development). What was hugely popular just after WW2 was al lowed to fade away.

The common thread is that the sports controllers have always been reactionary, never proactive, and never well enough organised to identify and deal with industry threats.

So, too, in Australia. We are surviving on the smell of an oily rag, patronised by mugs in pubs. Only radical and far reaching industry reform can assure a good future. Start with the man in the street.

Another thing we should remember is that gambling winnings (over $600) are taxable in USA by the IRS at 25%-30%. This is on top of state taxes on betting houses, which are all over the place but range from 8% to 40% of gross revenue (note gross, not net).

Australia has no personal gambling tax as such - unless you are doing it as a business - but the burden on the punter is still high due to the nature of the wagering structure. Tote deductions range from 14.5% to 25% while typically the fixed odds books of both TABCORP and the corporates can easily hit 130%.

As a routine, those hits are impossible for a punter to overcome unless he can find a miraculous set of "overs" and thereby beat the books. That's hard, especially now that greyhound pools are so small, and getting smaller. Of course, mugs in pubs would not know that so maybe it is a good idea not to tell them.

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Lets hope West Virginians aren't as stupid as the people from Florida to be sucked in by Grey2K, who conducted the poll with 400 people who supported their own agenda

Hardly a fair cross section of West Virginia's population

They had a time with the voting on continuing Greyhound Racing at Tri-State as well as the Casino. It was real close. And then you have the culture changing here where people would rather play the casino's, slot machines instead of playing the dogs.

Greyhound Racing here does not do enough business to support it self, the biggest part of the purses are paid by the Casino, which is why they don't want Greyhound Racing.

So it's not just the people who may not want Greyhound Racing, BUT also the Track's as they just want their Casino's and not pay out of their money to support Greyhound Racing, BUT State Law says, in order for you to have your Casino's, You have to have Greyhound Racing.

Our State just approved Sports Betting a few months ago.

Sandro Bechini wrote:

Jerry Pinson wrote: Poll On Greyhound Racing In The State of West Virginia In The USA EXTERNAL LINK Lets hope West Virginians aren't as stupid as the people from Florida to be sucked in by Grey2K, who conducted the poll with 400 people who supported their own agenda Hardly a fair cross section of West Virginia's population

It don't help with closed kennels on track and this will be the US Greyhound racing downfall

Scramble to get what breeding stock you need now from the USA..Because .In 3 years time we will not be breeding into the USA greyhound gene pool in Australia .

Greyhound racing is finished in the USA ...Its all over red rover ...

Using only 400 respondents is also amateur hour as it introduces large statistical errors.

They would prove that mother's milk causes cancer.

A large chunk of this money needs to be shown to the constituents that it is being used to benefit them via public works programs like roads, hospitals, schools, emergency services

And in the case of racing animals, horses or dogs, that some of the funds are being used to support welfare agencies and pay for integrity in these sports where animal abuse can happen in isolated incidents

Then and only then will they have the social licence to be the anti's including the vermin Grey2K at its own game

If the West Virginian greyhound community can garner support to lobby your Government to go this way then animal racing can pave the way for its own future because it will provide an alternate revenue stream which could be very lucrative for it.

Kevin, unfortunately, I believe you will be correct and it will be the end of a long and rich era

You have to wonder why G2K always is so interested in the racing industry paying taxes when Grey2K, the HSUS, PETA and the ASPCA from 2014-2018 took in almost $1,900,000,000, that is 1.95 BILLION dollars, and because they are all non-profits paid no taxes.

Most states don't, for whatever reason, tax the live export wagers. Most of these wagers come from Advance Deposit Wager hubs with the largest being in Oregon. I can sit in a track in WV or Florida and wager on my smart phone thru an ADW hub, watch the live race and because my wager comes from Oregon there is no tax on it.

This isn't the fault of the greyhound industry. Online wagering or sales for retail stores has become a multi-billion dollar part of any business. Most businesses embrace online sales and pay taxes on their sales. One would think the legislature could pass a law taxing these wagers, but they haven't yet.

Dick,

This is where the greyhound industry needs to get smart.

It now needs to start a class action to charge all betting operators a royalty for using the race fields as our industry including thoroughbreds and harness racing has done to garner a revenue stream from the people who benefit the most form racing i.e. the betting agencies and bookmakers

This would give your industry the funds to upgrade tracks, provide better prizemoney and improve welfare and rehoming options for your dogs and also money to bury these anti-racing airheads

One would hope that your State Governments would also assist in progressing such legislation where they get a clip from it as well and then they can chip in and throw more money towards welfare and rehoming as well to protect the sport from these vultures

This would also create more jobs and the promotion of such activity would at least encourage politicians to keep the sport alive and hopefully encourage other States to do the same

If the positive aspects of the sport can be promoted in the USA as we are starting to do here in Australia then you have a chance of the sport surviving.

It needs a major and combined push by all the tracks that are currently operating and also the main body, the NGA, to lobby politicians and to throw money behind the sports promotion and to prove that GREY2K and HSUS & PETA are nothing but leeches who suck donations from unsuspecting donors by telling brazen lies and paying themselves exorbitant salaries and travel benefits

You're right. Adoption is now at 100%. There are more applications to adopt greyhounds than there are greyhounds. Some adoption groups are now working with the Irish and have transported a number of Irish greyhounds to the U.S. for adoption.

We have been doing a better job getting the truth out, but the AR's have been trashing us for so long that many people believe them.

We'll keep fighting and see what happens.

Where there is a glimmer of hope, keep pushing and keep fighting

Call West Virginia a start..and see if your Association can entice the Southland and other WV tracks to not cut down their racing programs and to explore the legal options to charge a royalty on their race fields turnover from the bookies and para mutuals feeding off their product

Good to see that a few of the Senators have called out Grey2k for what they are hope that thought process gets into the mainstream

Its also interesting that Ivanka Trump has come out so strongly against greyhound racing .. firstly in Florida and again here in West Virginia. WV is one of her fathers strongest states and I would imagine that most of the dog people would be pro-Trump. Also her husband is a big game hunter so how does that work ?

Southland and the two WV tracks are owned by the same corporation. The difference is Southland was decoupled from the casino in 2018 so SL didn't have to run races to keep their casino going. In West Virginia the tracks are coupled to the casinos and in order to keep the casino operating the tracks must also run.

Going to a bookie system would be interesting and I know it works in other countries, but at this point I doubt that is an option.

Geoff,

It was actually Lara Trump that came out against greyhound racing in both states, but your point is well taken. While the president promised a lot to the coal miners in WV everyone knew he wouldn't be able to deliver more jobs to the coal mining industry as coal is not a popular form of fuel anymore. However, even with the coal miners angry I don't think Trump is in any danger of losing WV.

It will be interesting to see if G2K waits a year before bringing the bill up again. No matter what the vote as long as they have a senator and house rep. to introduce the bills those bills will go to committees to get voted on.

G2K doesn't care if they waste taxpayers money and legislator's time. They started in 2009 in Florida and had legislation introduced every year till they won at the ballot box in 2018. I think only one year there was no legislation in Florida from G2K.

You already sound like you are defeated